Caramel Apple Crisple

One oddly named post following another. I realize that I cook a lot of things that don’t fit neatly into a well-known category that bloggers would instantly recognize. I love it though, because I feel like I am inventing something new :) and maybe this will be my blogger thing? Too early in the game to tell, its like when people try and give themselves a nick-name, ugh who does that, so obnoxious right? Hehe.

On to the crisple! I think I am really in the Christmas spirit or something, because this name sounds winter-y and Christmas-y to me. It is merely just my pairing of the word crumble and crisp. Where TMZ concocts Brangelina, I stir up crisple :)

In all seriousness, this recipe came to me from a bit of a mash up as well. I found this brilliant apple crisp recipe on tastespotting probably a couple months ago. I always bookmark things after I make them based on their taste, and also write the recipe in my little cooking journal mess of scribbles. I cannot find the apple crisp in my bookmarks nor can I relocate the website on tastespotting! Mystery blogger wherever you went, thank you for a lovely base to my crisple.

So I had some left over apples from my last trip to the grocery store and usually I make apple chips but I felt like getting a little bit adventurous. I had the apple crisp recipe and saw my jar of salted caramel. I loooooooooooove salted caramel. I always have some on hand for frostings or just a decorative drizzle. I made some dark chocolate salted caramels for a craft fair last month as well that I am selling on Etsy (link to come)

I saw a few recipes here and there of caramel apple pies or crisps, but many of them had store bought caramel, or corn syrup in the filling which I refuse to cook with. So I just decided to experiment with my own :)

I made this dessert for visiting my BFs fire station. I cooked them some crispy tilapia and steamed/roasted veggies :)

Apple Crisple:

Serves about 8 people, or 4 hungry firefighters :)

For the filling:

6 apples*

About 3 tablespoons lemon juice

¼ cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Homemade salted caramel to drizzle**

*I used 3 organic granny smith and 3 organic golden delicious. I didn’t peel or core them either, just sliced them on the thick setting of my mandolin. If you don’t have a mandolin, stop reading this post and buy one, you will never regret it.

**recipe at bottom :)

For the topping:

¾ cup almond flour

¾ cup gluten free rolled oats

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup cold organic butter

A handful of sliced or slivered almonds

-First assemble the apple filling. I like to use a giant plastic Tupperware style bowl with a lid so that I can shake are the contents. It’s much easier and faster and it actually does a better job than if you were to try to stir around apple slices to coat them. Place the apples in your large bowl and drizzle with lemon juice. Give a quick shake.

-Next assemble the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small separate bowl and stir, then dump into bowl. Shake the bowl for a bit until you feel all the apples have been coated and there is no free flour hanging around on the bottom of the bowl. Some will be more coated than others but this is fine. Let sit while you make the topping.

-Grab a large bowl, or something with a large surface area bottom. You will be using a pastry cutter and it’s much easier if you have enough room. Mix together the flour, oats, salt and baking powder first. Then slice up the cold butter into chunks and cut into flour mixture with a pastry cutter until all butter chunks are pea sized or smaller. Stir in the almonds.

-Choose a pan for your crisple. I used an extra large ramekin because I think that makes it look nice. It’s around the same size as a 9 inch pie pan.

-To place the apples in the pan I layered them in a spiral design. After each layer drizzle the apples with salted caramel. If you just made the caramel, it’s still liquid enough to use, however if it’s been refrigerated or sitting at room temperature, you’ll need to liquefy it. (about 20 sec in the microwave). At this point how much caramel you use is up to you :)

-After all the apples have been layered, sprinkle the topping mixture on top and place in the oven for about 40 minutes. Mine took probably about 45. Wait until the apples are nice and bubbly :)

You can add caramel sauce to the top if you want but I don’t think it needs it. This is sooooooooo good with some organic vanilla frozen yogurt. Mmmm :)

Salted Caramel:

2 cups organic sugar

1 stick organic butter

1 cup organic heavy cream

around 1 tablespoon salt, or to your taste.

If you know how to make caramel, here is my recipe. If you don't, I will be posting a video how to later :)

Cinnamon Sugar Jelly Holders

What the f are jelly holders? Not quite a donut hole, not anywhere near a cookie really, baked in a muffin pan but certainly not a muffin. They lacked a practical name that fit with what they were. When I described what they were my boss said "so, like an edible jelly holder then?" And so they are named. In all seriousness I could probably call these jelly donut holes and everyone would understand however there is no creativity in that.

I'm usually a huge fan of grape jelly, and this is the kind I used in my holders. However this one doesn’t taste quite like your average grape jelly. Still delicious. Also not a ton of added sugar which is a lovely plus.

Alright, on to the recipe. I am in the process of experimenting with recipes for my Christmas cookie plates that I intend to deliver to all my friends and certain fire stations : ) so there will be many Christmas recipes coming up. (I am aware I'm starting late compared to like, every other food blog haha)

I kind of love the monotony of this type of production, and that there is more to do to complete the treat after it is finished baking.

Jelly Holders:

Slightly adapted from hungrycouplenyc

Makes about 36 medium size, or 24 large.

Preheat oven to 375°

1 ¼ cup brown rice flour*

¼ cup tapioca flour*

2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ a stick of organic butter **
½ cup sugar***
1 free range egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup coconut milk****

To roll:

About 4 Tablespoons organic butter melted

Roughly ½ cup of organic white sugar

Cinnamon!

Jelly Filling:

Some jelly, I used about a cup

Some water, I didn’t even measure, just stirred it in the jelly bit by bit until it was a little more liquid. Honestly I probably wont even add water next time.

*The original recipe is not gluten free, when I alter recipes I usually use a majority of brown rice flour to ensure that it turns out. Next time I will use almond flour :)

**I actually used about 6 tablespoons because I didn’t have a full stick

***I omitted this because it is coated in sugar, and I try to avoid sugar or use only natural sugars like honey and maple syrup. These would be great with maple syrup. I now have a new idea to try :)

**** Coconut milk is my favorite, but when I make these with the almond flour I’ll use almond milk. I might also try some SO delicious NOG.

-Combine flours, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

-Melt the butter and let cool *TIP* if you use a bowl with a larger surface area on the bottom, the butter will cool faster :)

-Once butter is cool, whisk with the sugar (if using) then whisk in the egg, milk, and vanilla until one solid color.

-Slowly add the flour mixture. It really mixes together pretty easily.

-Spray your mini muffin tin with non-stick spray. I use an organic olive oil spray with no additives; it is VERY hard to find a cooking spray that is actually decently healthy. I would avoid it all together if I wasn’t lazy :)

-Spoon batter into cups until about half full. More if you want the large size, they do puff up pretty good.

- Pop into the over for about 12 minutes, rotate your pan if they are cooking unevenly (I have a very frustrating oven sometimes)

-Once they are finished, they slide right out of the pan ready for you to start another batch.

-While they are cooling, prepare your jelly mixture. Hungry Couple NYC used a piping bag, but I have these cool little squeezer bottles (below) that I think are supposed to be used for candy or something more like that, but they work perfect. And on the plus side, you can add the jelly and water in the bottle together and shake to mix :)

-Once the little balls are cooled, place the squeezer tip in the bottom of them and fill with jelly. Be sure not to squeeze hard because the jelly would just shoot through the top and then you would have to eat it right then and there because you made a mess! Ask me how I know this :)

-After they are filled with jelly, melt a bit of butter in a small bowl and grab a food brush. Also mix your cinnamon and sugar and have it close if you haven’t done that already.

-Now take each ball and paint with a bit of butter, then roll in your cinnamon and sugar.

Voila, deliciousness :)

While typing this, I was thinking about allllllllll the different ways that I can alter this recipe to make some really delicious jelly holders.

Variations:

+Almond flour, almond milk and almond extract, roll in poppy seeds, fill will lemon jelly

+Coconut oil instead of butter, roll in sugar and flaked coconut. Brush with coconut oil too. Use a mango or pineapple jelly?

+Maple syrup instead of sugar. Brush with maple instead of butter at the end too maybe. Might be too sticky. This whole maple idea can go several different ways.

+Blueberry jelly inside, substitute vanilla extract for vanilla bean paste to make a sort of vanilla bean blueberry scone type flavor.

AHH so many ideas. The lovely thing about having to roll things in sugar, is that you can have many different bowls, with many different flavored sugars to make all sorts of combos. And even different jellies, and different oils to coat them in.

I will surely be updating this later with some of these variations.

Enjoy, tell me what you think loves :)